The ninth hour of the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona ended under the caution flag after Sebastian Saavedra pulled the Starworks Motorsport Prototype off the track, departing the top ten overall in the process.
Action Express Racing ended the hour running first and second, Joao Barbosa in the #5 leading Brian Frisselle in the #9 entry. Barbosa lead for much of the hour after Richard Westbrook and Marino Franchitti made pitstops whilst running first and second. He then resisted momentary pressure from Jordan Taylor who was able to catch the Portuguese, the pair running nose-to-tail before Taylor also pitted.
Pitstops also saw the lead change hands in the GTLM class. Porsche man Nick Tandy ceding position to the sister Porsche North America entry, before they too pitted, leaving Jonathan Bomarito to lead in the #93 Viper. However, Bomarito’s stint in the lead would end when he returned to the pits with heavy front end damage, dealing a further blow to Viper’s hopes of a Daytona victory after the #91 car had been delayed with a power steering system problem dropping it 11 laps off of the class lead.
The cycling through of stops restored the Porsches to first and second in class, Antonio Garcia third in the #3 Corvette at the end of the hour. The issues for Saavedra moved Tandy up to ninth overall.
CORE Autosport were leading the PC class, 8Star Motorsports second.
Lorenzo Case led GTD for Scuderia Corsa, though he was briefly bested by James Davison in the #007 TRG-AMR entry who bravely drove around the outside of the Ferrari under braking for turn one, arresting the car’s speed just soon enough to avoid running wide in order to keep the class.
However, a penalty for an improper wave-by would push Davison and the #007 back down the order, Case taking back the lead of the class.
2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona standings after 9 hours
P
#5 Action Express Racing – Corvette DP – Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais/Frisselle
#9 Action Express Racing – Corvette DP – Frisselle/Frisselle/Martin/Giroux
#02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates – Riley-Ford – Dixon/Kanaan/Franchitti/Larson
PC
#54 CORE Autosport – ORECA FLM09 – Bennett/Gue/Braun/Wilkins
#25 8Star Motorsports – ORECA FLM09 – Potolicchio/Kimber-Smith/Marsal/Huff
#7 Starworks Motorsport – ORECA FLM09 – Popow/Fuentes/Tutumlu/Marcelli/Kaffer
GTLM
#911 Porsche North America – Porsche 911 – Tandy/Lietz/Pilet
#912 Porsche North America – Porsche 911 – Long/Christenson/Bergmeister
#3 Corvette Racing – Chevrolet Corvette – Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe
GTD
#63 Scuderia Corsa – Ferrari 458 – Balzan/Westphal/Vilander/Case
#22 Alex Job Racing – Porsche 911 – MacNeil/Keen/van Gisbergen/Lewis/Domoulin
#48 Paul Miller Racing – Audi R8 – Miller/Rast/Haase/Bell